Kars on King Came and Went. But Where Was the Rest of Oshawa?

By Dale Jodoin Columnist                                               The old cars were there. The crowds were there. The politicians were there too. It is an election year, after all. I enjoyed it. I always do. But while walking downtown, something started bothering me. Where was the rest of Oshawa? Not the Oshawa we remember. The Oshawa we have today is different from the Oshawa we say we want to become. This is not a complaint about Kars on King. It is an observation. Where was Ontario Tech University? We have a university in this city doing serious automotive research. Ontario Tech's ACE facility works with manufacturers, researchers and technology companies testing electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, trucks and other transportation technology. Its climatic wind tunnel can reproduce extreme weather and winds reaching 280 kilometres an hour. That is happening right here in Oshawa. We have a downtown car show celebrating automotive history while people only a short distance away are helping figure out what the automobile may become next. Why aren't those two things standing beside each other? Bring an experimental vehicle downtown. Bring students. Bring engineers. Let people see what is being developed in their own city. And bring Hunter, Ontario Tech's Ridgeback mascot. Then there is Durham College. Durham College trains people for automotive trades and electric vehicle technology. Bring those students downtown too. Let a teenager admiring an old Mustang suddenly find himself talking to someone learning how to repair an electric vehicle. That conversation might last five minutes. It might also change a life. And bring the Durham College mascot. Then another question hit me. Where were Oshawa's two big sports teams? The Oshawa Generals are part of the bones of this city. Their history goes back generations, and even their name connects directly to General Motors and Oshawa's automotive story. Give the Generals a table. Bring representatives. Bring Deke. Then invite the Oshawa FireWolves. Professional lacrosse is now part of Oshawa too. Give them a table. Let families meet the team. And bring Alphie. Now picture King Street again. Classic cars downtown. Ontario Tech showing automotive technology from the future. Durham College students showing the skills needed to keep those vehicles moving. The Generals representing Oshawa's sporting and automotive history. The FireWolves represent something newer growing in the city. And through it all, the mascots. Hunter. The Durham College mascot. Deke. Alphie. Think about the kids. A six year old may not understand battery systems or aerodynamics. But that child will remember meeting four giant mascots downtown. Mom takes a picture. Dad stops at the Ontario Tech display. An older brother talks with a Durham College student. The family discovers the FireWolves. Someone decides to go to a Generals game. Suddenly one city event is helping another. That is what bothers me. We already have everything. The university is here. The college is here. The teams are here. The families are here. So what are we waiting for? When politicians are standing beside us at public events, we should ask more than, "How are you?" Ask why Ontario Tech is not there. Ask why Durham College is not there. Ask why our two major teams are not part of it. Ask what will be different next year. We should be proud of the cars Oshawa helped build. But we should be just as interested in what young people here might build next. Maybe the next great automotive idea is already sitting inside an Oshawa classroom. Maybe the person who designs it is fifteen years old today, walking through Kars on King with Mom and Dad. The old cars show us where Oshawa has been. Our university, college and teams show us who Oshawa is today. Put them together and we might finally show people where Oshawa is going. If we cannot bring those pieces together for one day downtown, maybe the bigger question is not what was missing from the car show. Maybe it is what we are missing about Oshawa itself.